Give foster youth full ACA access

This month marks the third anniversary since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. Despite the ongoing partisan rancor surrounding the bill’s implementation, there is at least one provision Congress should be able to find common ground around: making sure we protect the ability of young adults to remain on their parents’ health care plans until they reach age 26. Millions of young adults already are benefiting from this provision as they work to get themselves established either through continuing their educations or landing a job.

But when it comes to the thousands of foster youth who age out of the foster-care system each year, the guarantee of affordable health insurance until they are able to get on their feet with gainful employment could be in jeopardy if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid doesn’t take the broadest interpretation of the law and ensure all states cover former foster youth until age 26.

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Almost 30,000 young people age out of foster care every year, having never been adopted or reunified with their birth parents. The fact that they age out is our failure as a government, and we should not compound that problem by inadvertently denying them access to the same health care opportunities as any other young adult would receive under the Affordable Care Act.

Foster youth who age out are statistically more likely to experience homelessness and incarceration and to lack health care. They face higher rates of physical and mental health challenges, sometimes due in part to trauma early in life. These facts make it all the more important that we guarantee all eligible foster-care alumni access to quality health coverage.

Foster youth shouldn’t be treated any differently as they transition from the foster-care system into adulthood — but if we aren’t careful, that’s exactly what could happen.

The CMS proposed regulation requires states to enroll eligible foster youth in Medicaid to age 26 only if they remain living in the state where they were in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid. Although the draft regulation provides states with the option of extending Medicaid to youth who move to their state, it does not require it. That may leave foster youth in limbo when it comes to their ability to access these benefits under the Affordable Care Act.

While CMS should be applauded for striving to achieve health parity for foster youth, requiring those youth to remain living in the state where they were in foster care presents an unnecessary burden on the backs of those already carrying the heaviest load.